Recently Indian diplomat Pawan Badhe hits out at Pakistan in UN Human rights council. India calls Balochistan ‘land of the disappeared’ due to enforced disappearances by Pakistan Army. India asks UN to hold Pakistan accountable for state-sponsored terrorism and violation of human rights.
Balochistan is one of the four province of Pakistan. It is the largest province in terms of land area, forming the southwestern region of the country, but is the least populated. Its provincial capital and largest city is Quetta. Today Balochistan region is divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to the Pakistan 2011 census The main ethnic groups in the province are the Baloch people and the Pashtun, who constitute 52% and 36% of the population respectively. Balochistan is rich in exhaustible and renewable resources; it is the second major supplier of natural gas in Pakistan. Pakistan is heavily dependent on natural resources available in the Balochistan region but yet it has the highest rural poverty rate in Pakistan as well as the highest illiteracy rate. It is one of the richest region in Pakistan but having the poorest population with no proper electricity and drinking water facilities.
Balochistan has witnessed many insurgencies since Pakistan took the land of Balochistan in 1948. The insurgency started right after the Khan of Kalat was forced to sign the instrument of accession in 1948. It has occurred in 5 different periods. Today Balochistan has become a hell for its own Baloch people.
The Human Rights Council of Balochistan held a press conference in Quetta on 18th MARCH 2021 , revealing the details of the “enforced disappearances” and “extrajudicial killings” that were carried out in Balochistan in 2020. The numbers are shocking – 480 individuals were “forcibly disappeared” and 177 were killed and their dead bodies were thrown in the wilderness. The rights group added that these “conservative” numbers were derived from the information accessible to them from various areas of Balochistan. The actual toll might be higher.
There are many more people as well who are fighting for an independent Balochistan and also who have sacrificed their lives for the land of Balochistan.
KARIMA BALOCH
Karima Baloch also known as Karima Mehrab was a Baloch human rights activist and dissident. She campaigned for the independence of Balochistan from Pakistan, and was included in the BBC’s list of 100 influential and inspirational women in 2016. Baloch started her career as a human rights and independence activist in 2005, when she attended a protest in Turbat over forced disappearance in the Pakistan province of Balochistan, where she carried a picture of one of her missing relatives.
In 2015, Baloch went into self-imposed exile after terrorism charges were filed against her by the Pakistani state. A year later, in 2016, she was granted asylum in Canada, where she lived until her disappearance and death in December 2020. In 2016, following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public speech on Independence Day in which he mentioned the situation in Pakistan’s Balochistan, Baloch addressed him in a video, where she thanked him for mentioning the issue, adding “We will fight our own war, you just be our voice”.
ZAHID KURD
Zahid Baloch was abducted by Pakistan’s security forces from Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan, in front of witnesses on March 18, 2014. Zahid has not been produced in any court yet despite many countrywide and international campaigns and calls from human rights organizations for his release. All the international human rights bodies and mechanisms were approached about his case. International media and human rights groups have published many stories to bring the case into light. But, still he remains missing, with his fate unknown.
MUNIR MENGAL
MUNIR MENGAL is the President of Baloch Voice Association. He was abducted by the Pakistani Army in 2006 and tortured for 2 years. He escaped to France where he is living in exile since 2008. He has been raising awareness about the Balochistan conflict and human rights violation done by Pakistani army in various platforms including the United Nations.
BRAHUMDAGH BUGTI
Brahamdagh Khan Bugti is the founder and leader of the Political Organisation Baloch Republican Party, a Baloch nationalist group. He campaigns for the rights of Baloch people around Europe. He is currently living in self exile in Switzerland. Bugti accuses Pakistan of serious human rights violations and blames Pakistani media for not highlighting the frightful situation in Balochistan including military operations, enforced disappearances, torture, and killing of Baloch civilians and political activists. In an Interview with the Republic, he called Pakistan a terrorist state and the Pakistani army a terrorist supporting army.
He says that the CPEC in Balochistan is an illegal project because it aims to exploit the resources of Balochistan. It does not include the wishes and consent of the Baloch people. The increasing Chinese influence is also dangerous for the region and neighboring countries. The influx of Chinese and people from other parts of Pakistan without any regulation is aimed at reducing the Baloch people to a minority and looting their resources.
HAYAT BALOCH
A day before the 74th Independence Day of Pakistan, Hayat Baloch, a student of Karachi University, was dragged out of his house in Turbat, on to his front lawn, by the armed Frontier Corps (FC) on the suspicion of involvement in terrorism. The forces then tied him up and pumped eight bullets into his body while his parents, pleading for mercy, watched in horror. Hayat was not given a chance to explain his innocence or the right to ask the reason for the treatment he received.
Therefore it is true that Balochistan has become a LAND OF DISAPPEARED because of the human right violation done by the Bajwa’s Pakistani Army and Imran Khan Government. So BAJWA’S Pakistan should concentrate and focus on their own land and not on Kashmir because they are doing the exact same thing which they say that the Indian government is doing in Kashmir and Pakistan should stop commenting and begging on international platforms about Kashmir. They should focus on improving the lives of Baloch people and other Pakistani citizen instead of only reciting the name of Kashmir to gain votes and fake sympathy of other Islamic countries.
